Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed Review

Developer: Sumo Digital
Publisher: Sega
Platform: Xbox 360
Other Platforms: PlayStation 3, WiiU, PC and 3DS
Price: £24.99


This is just a personal opinion but I think Mario Kart could be the most overrated series of all time. Just because Nintendo thought of the concept of pitting Mario and friends in a racing game, its forever written in the gaming manifesto that every racing game based on a videogame series is forever dubbed as a shitty rip-off and for the longest time, they were. That is until Sega, Nintendo's long-time rival decided to make their own Racing game based on their Spikey blue mascot and a healthy dosage of other sega characters that tingled the nostalgia balls of any sega fanboy. Playing both Mario Kart and Sonic and SEGA allstar racing, I just feel that the latter is superior in every way. the character roster isn't based solely on one franchise, the vehicles had interesting designs that fitted the characters perfectly and while it takes elements from Mario kart, the one thing they didn't take was the cheap game play that would frustrate even the most patient guy in the world. To me, Sonic and SEGA all-star racing was one of the best racing games I ever played and one of the few games in recent years I would always pop back in every now and then.

So when the sequel was announced, I was hyped as hell. A sequel to one of my favourite videogames with a whole new and original system involving transforming your vehicle during a race? How can I say no to that?...You can tell where this is going...

Before I go on, let it be known that I don't think this is a bad game. Its just when compared to the original, I just feel that Transformed fails in comparison. I don't know about you but a sequel to a videogame is supposed to be superior to the original in every way, otherwise what's the point right?

The game starts off promising with the single player being the career mode where you can play through the World Tour that would pit you into missions that are similar to the game Outrun or you can play through the Grand Prix mode and race through all of the games tracks including all of the track Mirrored. There's also the time attack and single race modes that is standard in all racing games. There's also a multiplayer if your into that sort of thing. but despite the beefiness of the single player, its not until you actually start playing the game when things turn sour for me.

Lets start with the most disappointing part of the game which is the character roster. Almost half of the characters from the last game have been taken out and replaced by a new cast of rubbish characters save a couple of decent choices being Gilius from Golden Axe and Joe Musashi from the Shinobi series. Nights is also a playable character along with her evil counterpart Reala but once you see what exactly Sumo Digital DID to the beloved character, you wouldn't feel that angry about Ristar getting the shaft again.

Seriously, during the character design meeting for this game, didn't anyone object to turning Nights into something that will give me nightmares? They also included Vyse from Skies from Arcadia. Nice one, Sumo. Include a character based on a game that I'll never play because its one of those super rare games that asks for a stupid amount of money second hand. Finally, there's the celebrity appearance of Danica Patrick and Disney's Wreck-it Ralf. Wreck-it Ralf being a film that's YET to show up in my area in time of this review, might I add.

Returning characters also have different vehicles this time round to work with the transforming gimmick of the game. While some of the new designs are a massive improvement such as Tails' ride and giving Beat something more approachable than a fucking pimp mobile, some designs like Shadow's tank thing and Robotnik's not-egg-o-matic just left me wondering once again on who's bright idea was this during that character design meeting. Probably the same retard that thought Nights should be a failed attempt as an extra for Cars 3. Speaking of retards, why does the avatar in the game sound like PeeWee Herman with severe brain damage?

I should also point out that Alex Kidd will be a playable character on Christmas day. Timed DLC that's free? If it weren't for the this idea being easily exploited by hackers or crafty gamers, this would be the kind of module I could get behind as you would have a good reason to keep of your game and its not going to charge you anything. Something that Capcom will have night terrors about if this ever becomes a rule.

Moving on to the beef of this gaming curry that is the game play  its a racing game where the tracks are based on SEGA games and you have to try and make the 3 laps to the finish while using weird and wacky weapons or traps to fuck the other players over and help you climb the positions all the way to preferably 1st place. Pretty much what you would expect from a Kart racing game. The twist this time round is when the tracks would change to the sky or water and your character's vehicles will automatically transform to whatever terrain that your heading towards complete with sounds that sounds similar to the Bayformer movies.

If your playing transformed from Sonic and SEGA all-star racing then the first thing you'll notice is how floaty the controls feel at first. This is because the characters not only have different stats but they also have different "mods" that you'll have to unlock for each character. Meaning that if you have a favourite character but aren't happy with the way they control, then all you need to do is level them up until they level up to a mod that you would be happy with. Its a nice idea and encourages you to play with all the characters and increases the games' life expectancy but this concept falls on it's ass when your playing multiplayer offline with a friend as they'll probably have no idea what would be the best mod for them while can go straight for your favourite character with the best mod unlocked for them.

It adds layers sure but when it comes to playing games with a friend, your in it for the fun not to torture them. Going back to the controls, the cars handle well once you get used to the GTA 4 inspired physics. The boats handle a bit finicky because you have to wrestle with keeping the boat straight every time it has to turn a corner or is scuffed by another boat so god help you if you end up crashing as It'll straight up ruin your race . As you can imagine the boats are also the slowest of the 3 vehicle types in the game. Although they can be fun to use once you get the hang of drifting and knowing when to perform stunts when the waves knocks you into the air. Finally you have the planes that are easier to control but are a little harder to drift with. The planes are also the vehicles that can evade attacks easier as they can perform stunts at any time while with the cars and boats, you need to be in mid-air to quickly tap the right thumb-stick in order to perform a flip or roll before landing. Evading attacks are tricky with cars and boats as you either have to set traps of your own to block the attacks or you have to boost fast enough to avoid getting hit.

The items in the game have also been changed around and better thought out this time round but unlike the last game where the chances of you getting a decent item depended on how well your doing in the race, they decided to fuck it all up by making the items straight up random so that even if you are in first place, your still in with the chance of picking up 3 remote controlled missiles  Another thing that Sumo talked about pre release was how there was a better chance of getting an "All-star" where your character goes super for a short time and catapults through the track. While the "All-Stars" in the last game were fun and exciting as each character was different, Transformed once again falls flat on it's face as all of the "All-stars" are pretty much the fucking same.

Another knock against the gameplay is how cheap the CPU can be. Its great that the challenge it taken up a notch but there's a difference between challenging opponents and cheap assholes and would make you turn the console off in a bad mood. I cant tell you how many times I would be close to winning only to be sucker punched by a stray Ice ball, only to find myself in 4th place once I gained control of the vehicle again. Or I get hit while in the air over a pit just before I could land, only to fall into said pit and have to start again from 9th place.

Graphics have suffered a downgrade as well but this is understandle as before the game was released and was on display at conventions, people complained about sudden frame dropping and to be fair, I would rather play a game that looks bland and but plays well instead of a game that looks pretty and crashes mid-session. That being said though, the last game still managed to look pretty while being fast as hell so there's clearly something that went wrong in development, maybe they rebuilt the game from the ground up and weren't aloud to look at the previous engine's code or something.

It's nice to know that they actually hired some musicians to create some funky remixes of sega tunes for the tracks this time round instead of just taking music from previous games but this also means that you can no longer pick out music before each track or unlock any tunes which is a shame because that's another small feature that Sumo takes away from the experience. The remixes are nice but sometimes you want to listen to something horrible to piss your friends off while racing against them. Voice acting is disappointing as the lines from Sonic and his mates are pretty much taken from recent sonic games, not only that but in poor quality as well.

While I praise the game for trying to be it's own thing and prevent itself from being another Mario Kart clone, it feels that it's lacking in other things that made the previous game so much fun. the transformation gimmick is a great step in the right direction but the lack of decent characters and cheap gameplay that made me dislike
Mario Kart in the first place prevents it from being anything better. In the end, it all just feels rushed in order to be released in time to cash in on the Wreck-it Ralf film, a film that HAS YET TO FUCKING SHOW UP IN MY AREA!!! I really hope Sumo Digital can learn from their mistakes and improve on the formula. For a game that celebrates all things sega, it certainly feels lazy in terms of presentation. Where's Streets of Rage or Fighting Vipers? Or how about Phantasy Star or even Vectorman? Transformed is a good game and I recommend checking it out over any other Kart game but if your given the option, pick Sonic and SEGA Allstar Racing if you haven't already simply because that game has so much more to offer rather than just a new way to play.

This has been my mental analysis and I'll see you next time!